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Chapter fifteen: The Day Before Christmas

As soon as Jane heard the door get slammed, she crossed the living-room and rushed to the lobby. She had wanted to call Maura earlier in the afternoon to let her know that she had seen Leo and that they had shared a coffee together but had finally decided to wait for dinner when they were back at home together.

Yet the minute she saw her wife, her excitement at the prospect of gossiping a bit vanished.

"It's madly snowing outside, Maura. Why are you wearing your Chanel sunglasses? It's not sunny... Even less at 6.30pm on a December evening."

Maura shrugged – planted a light kiss on Jane's lips – then walked to the kitchen to pour herself one very large glass of wine. A long silence followed before she dared to speak.

"Why not...!" She made a face: not the most convincing reason she could give to a detective.

Her curiosity piqued, Jane walked back to the kitchen and squinted her eyes in suspicion at her wife. The scientist's gestures were blatantly betraying her: she kept on avoiding Jane's gaze at all cost and adjusted her glasses every second or so.

"Maura." Jane bit her lips and crossed her arms against her chest. The Leo thing could wait. She had a brand new priority, now. But no reaction to it. "Maura!"

The medical examiner finally put an end to her game of hide-and-seek and forced a smile that did not really fool Jane. She leaned against the counter as casually as she could.

"Yes?"

Alright. Jane ran her tongue over her lips and nodded at nobody but herself. If Maura wanted really wanted to play this game then she wouldn't leave her a chance to win. Not even in her dreams. Game: on.

"You're inside the house, now. Don't you think it's time for you to take your sunglasses off? What are you hiding from me? It's ridiculous!"

Maura nervously laughed and took a long sip of her glass of wine to win some time. She didn't look comfortable at all. Needless to say that her behavior only made Jane even more curious.

"This is just a pair of sunglasses, Jane. Why do you focus so much on them, in the end? Didn't you have something you wanted to tell me? I have to say that your text message was very mysterious."

Jane rolled her eyes. Enough with it already. She nodded – pretended to go for a kiss – and grabbed Maura's sunglasses. Easy, too easy. Although she wasn't prepared for what she came to face.

Gasp. She put a hand in front of her mouth to hide her shock.

"What on Earth happened?"

Maura winced. The volume of her left eye had been tripled and the skin was now going through a rainbow of different colors. Jane frowned and observed the damage.

She slowly approached her hand from the injury but Maura made a step backwards right away.

"Just a little accident at the lab, today." Maura shrugged, more ashamed than hurt. "We should have known that using such amount of Nitrogen would..."

"Skip the periodic table speech, you know you'll only manage to lose me with it. What happened?"

The least Maura could say was that it was embarrassing. She had hoped that Jane wouldn't be there when she came back home even if she wasn't working today. It would have spared her an incredible amount of jokes she knew Jane would make as soon as she would know the truth behind the reason of her current black eye.

"A little explosion. Josh read a very interesting article and we decided to give a try to the experience but it didn't turn out as successful as we hoped for. Susie broke her glasses and I needed maybe four shampoos to get rid off the liquids that flew off during the explosion... They glued to my hair."

"That doesn't explain the black eye." Although a very amused smile had already appeared on Jane's lips and her tone of voice now betrayed the difficulty she was having to not burst out laughing.

"I got hit by my cell phone." Maura swallowed hard and tried to ignore her wife's chuckles. "I was wearing my protection glasses but they flew off and sadly did my cell phone too. It hit me right away. I didn't have a chance to avoid it. It went very fast."

Jane really burst out laughing, this time. She shook her head to apologize and grabbed her wife by the shoulders to lead her to the living-room. She motioned her the couch and took a deep breath to hold back a new wave of giggles.

"How about some ice? I'm a black eye specialist. I've got two brothers, after all."

Maura nodded quietly, shamefully. She sat down and pretended to sweep away some dust from her skirt then straigtened up.

"Maybe some Arnica too...? Do you know where it is in the bathroom?"

Within five minutes, Jane was back with everything. She settled on the couch next to her wife and grabbed the Arnica ointment first.

The daily life, Rizzoli. This is what you signed for when you decided to marry a science geek. Congrats. Your life's now super entertaining but don't show it too much. She can hit.

"I promise I'll go slow." She carefully approached a finger from Maura's cheekbone and began to apply the ointment. "Does it hurt?" Maura shook her head but the way she winced betrayed her real feelings. "It's almost over."

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Jane nodded. She had – indeed – remained quite vague in her text message since she had preferred to wait for a real face-to-face to break the news. She settled further on the couch and barely restrained a smirk before her impatience.

"I had a coffee with our dear Leo, today. In the South End. I swear... The LGBT association, now the gay district... If I didn't know better, I'd say he's gay himself!"

Maura turned her head around to properly look at her wife.

Through only one eye though.

Yet she looked just as surprised as what Jane had assumed that she would be. Epic win.

"Don't tell me you called him to set some sort of date with him..."

Alright. This wasn't a remark Jane had expected in return. Not at all. With Margot being in France, she had put into parenthesis her Mamma Rizzoli side and hadn't even thought about him when seeing Leo. Not a single second.

"What?! Are you crazy...?" Although she had to admit that it was a genius idea if she had wanted to work a bit on the whole mother plan. "No... We met by accident and I offered him a coffee. That's... That's all. Frenchie's not here so I give her a break on this front too."

"Then what happened? What did you talk about?" Maura grabbed back her glass of wine and held the ice pack against her cheekbone at the same time. "Is he as nice as he seems to be?"

Jane nodded. She had really hoped to find something that she wouldn't like in Leo but she had not, even after this unplanned coffee break.

"He's smart – tolerant – and likes the Red Sox. He's totally material. He doesn't smoke, doesn't drink... Man, he's almost too good to be true. There gotta be something!"

"Did he talk to you about Margot?"

Jane nodded but immediately made a face. That was the main issue she had and maybe the reason why she wanted to talk to Maura about it. Leo had only had nice words about the French girl. He really was into her.

"I'm afraid he has big plans for them." She shrugged. "I don't know if she realizes it... I'm not sure they're on the same page regarding their relation. He wants to invite us for dinner so we can meet his parents."

Maura blinked.

"Why does he want us to meet his parents?"

The question took Jane aback. Had Maura been hit on the head that she seemed suddenly deprived of any common sense? Perhaps they would have to run further medical exams. What a way to spend Christmas' Eve, though.

"Because he thinks we are Margot's mothers, of course!" She sighed and leaned her head backwards. Eyes closed. "Margot's lie is gonna hurt him big time. It's terrible, Maura. It really is. We have to do something."

"Do you think he is in love with her?"

Jane shrugged. She preferred not to think about it but the truth was that it seemed plausible and she felt extremely bad, now. She bit her lower lip and leaned her head against her wife's as she felt her settle in the crook of her neck.

"Ouch!"

Failed attempt. Maura immediately sat back up and winced in pain. She couldn't lean on the left side of her face for the moment and - by the evolution of her black eye - things weren't about to go back to normal anytime soon.

"Maybe we need to have a little chat with Margot next time we have her on Skype. In the meantime – and if you don't mind – I prefer to postpone any kind of dinner. I don't want Leo's parents to see... To see me like that." She motioned her black eye.

"You're right. They could think you belong to the mafia just like your biological dad..." Snap on her forearm. "Hey!"

"Do I need to remind you how often you came back home all bruised?"

Snort.

A teasing smirk played on Jane's lips before she bent over to lightly kiss Maura on the cheek.

"Maybe but it never had to do with flying cell phones and periodic tables."

Maura pouted and put down the ice pack. She tried to raise an eyebrow. In vain. Her eye was too sore for the slightest movement.

"I am just more creative. Accept it." She watched Jane stand up. "Where are you going to?"

Hands in the pockets of her jeans, the brunette grinned.

"I left my cell phone upstairs. It's Christmas' Eve. No way I don't send a picture of your face to all my contact list."

"Don't you even dare..." But by the time Maura stood up, Jane had already reached the first floor.